Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi

There is no solid information about the Imam's birth year. However, the range that is believed to exist is 720H/1320CE to 730H/1330CE. He was born into a humble and impoverished family in the city of Granada which was the capital of Nasri Kingdom under the reign of Sultan Muhammad V al-Ghani Billah at the time.^[4]

Education

He had never been outside of Granada, not for study or

As was customary at the time, al-Shatibi received his early education in Arabic language, grammar, and literature. Abu Abdullah Muhammad al-Biri (d. 754H/1353CE), dubbed the "master of grammarians" (Shaykh al-Nuhat) in Andalus, was his first instructor in Arabic language and grammar. After Al-Biri's passing, Shatibi completed his study of Arabic language and grammar with Abu al-Qasim al-Sharif al-Sibti (d. 760H/1358CE). Al-Sibti's greatness in the Arabic language and grammar earned him the title "The Bearer of the Standard of Rhetoric." He was also highly regarded by al-Timbukti, who referred to him as "Ra'is al-'Ulum alLisaniyyah" (The King of Linguistics).^[6]

Al-Shatibi learned fiqh from the renowned Andalusian jurist Abu Sa'id ibn Lubb, who served as Granada's khatib (preacher) and mufti. For his fiqh education, he owed a great deal to his mentor Ibn Lubb, although they later got into arguments over a number of different topics.^[6]

The

We don't know much about the Imam's teaching career because his biography hasn't been thoroughly documented. Al-Timbukti did, however, make reference to three of his pupils. The most well-known were the two brothers, Abu Bakr ibn 'Asim and Abu Yahya ibn 'Asim. Later on, the latter was appointed chief Qadi of Granada and is renowned for his Tuhfat al-Hukkam (Gift for the Rulers), a collection of rules compiled for Granada's judges. On the battlefield, his brother Abu Yahya was martyred. Abu Abdullah al-Bayani was the third pupil of the Imam.[7]

Two additional of the Imam's disciples were named by Abul-Ajfan: Abu Ja'far al-Qassar and Abu Abdullah al-Majari, who wrote the Imam's first biography, which we already discussed.^[7]

Death

On Sha'ban 8, 790H/1388CE, this illustrious interdisciplinary Imam of the fourteenth-century al-Andalus departed from this life. This date was verified by one of the Imam's most well-known pupils, Abu Yahya ibn 'Asim, in his Nayl al-Muna, an abbreviated version of Al-Muwafaqat. The verse reads, "Until his life came to an end in the year of ninety in seven hundred."^[8]

Legacy

One of the few classical jurists who is regarded as being heavily relied upon by contemporary writers on

Rashid Rida and other contemporary academics regarded him as one of the eighth and fourteenth-century "mujaddids", or religious revivalists of the century, on par with Ibn Khaldun. In a similar spirit, 'Abd al-Muta'al al-Sa'idi (d. 1386H/1966CE) expressed his opinion, adding that Imam al-Shafi'i and al-Shatibi are ranked similarly in terms of significance.^[8]

Works

It was not until the nineteenth century that the works of Imam al-Shatibi became almost unknown in the modern world. In 1884, Tunis published the first edition of his masterpiece, Al-Muwafaqat. His background was little understood before then. The renowned writings of the Imam came to be acknowledged as modern Islamic legal systems' masterworks. Thus far, Imam al-Shatibi's biographies have documented the following treatises, which are primarily in the areas of Arabic grammar and fiqh:^[9]

1. Al-Muwafaqat ("The Reconciliation of the fundamentals of Islamic Law"), this is regarded as his greatest work and his
   Qur'an and Sunnah (tariqah al-Hanafiyyin, or jurists' method). By applying this technique, he discovered that the fundamental idea of all Sharia
   rulings was maslahah. Additionally, he was one of the few Maliki scholars who combined Hanafi School with Maliki School teachings.
2. Kitab al-Itisam ("The Book of Adherence"): often known as The Book of Adherence, is one of Imam al-Shatibi's most well-known books. The subject of the two-volume work is
   Muhammad Rashid Rida
   introduced al-Shatibi and his writings in his al-Manar, frequently referring to al-Shatibi as a “warrior against bid'ah”.
3. Sharh ‘Ala al-Khulasa fi al-Nahw ("Explanation on the Summary of Arabic Grammar"), this is a four volume commentary on Ibn Malik’s al Khulasa al-Alfiyya. Al-Timbukti holds this as “an unprecedented work on Arabic grammar!”
4. ‘Unwan al-Ittifaq fi ‘Ilm al-Ishtiqaq ("Addressing the Agreement in Science of Derivation"), it's a book on Arabic morphology.
5. Kitab Usul al-Nahw ("Principles of Arabic Grammar"), both of the above mentioned books are on Arabic grammar, which Imam al-Shatibi also mentioned in his Sharh ‘Ala al-Khulasa fi al-Nahw. However al-Timbukti mentioned that al-Shatibi destroyed these works during his lifetime for reasons not described by his biographers.
6. Kitab al-Majalis, this is a commentary on the chapter of sale (buyu’) of Sahih al-Bukhari.
7. Al-Ifadat wal-Inshadat (Testimonies and Recitations): a treatise on Arabic literature edited by Abul Ajfan and published in Beirut in 1983.
8. Fatawa ("Legal Verdicts"), the several fatawa that al-Shatibi presented were eventually collected by Abul Ajfan, despite the fact that he did not compose or compile them into a single volume. It has sixty fatawa covering topics such as salat, ijtihad, zakah, vows, slaughter, punishments, inheritance, creativity, and so on.

References

Arabic Wikisource has original works by or about:
al-Shatibi

References for further readings

• Muhammad Khalid Masud, Islamic Legal Philosophy: A Study of Abu Ishaq al-Shatibi's Life and Thought, McGill University 1977
• Dr. Ahmad Raysuni, Imam Shatibi's Theory of the Higher Objectives and Intents of Islamic Law translated by Nancy Roberts, publisher IIIT.
• Wael B. Hallaq, A History of Islamic Legal Theories, Cambridge 1997, Ch. 5.
• The Shatibi Center, The Life of Al-Imam Ash-Shatibi, shatibionline.com

Source

Tawfique Al-Mubarak (January 2015). Imam al-Shatibi: The Master Architect of Maqasid (PDF). Switzerland: International Association of Insurance Supervisors. p. 1-6.